Owner of long-lost camera becomes an instant celebrity

Staff writer, with CNA

Sat, Mar 30, 2013 - Page 3

An American woman who lost her camera in Hawaii nearly six years ago has become an instant celebrity after the camera was found on a beach in Taiwan.

The Canon PowerShot camera, which Lindsay Scallan lost during a scuba diving trip in Hawaii in 2007, was found by an employee of China Airlines, Douglas Cheng (鄭明秋), when he went for a stroll on a beach in Taitung County last month.

“An employee of China Airlines found my camera, found the photographs still on the memory card and got in touch with Hawaiian officials to see if they could help find the owner — the ‘mystery blond woman,’ as they called it,” Scallan said on a CBS Atlanta news show.

After the recovery of the camera, “I went from normal and boring to having a news crew sitting in my living room,” she said.

Scallan, who is from the US state of Georgia, said she had taken a lot of photographs during the trip and was on a night dive when she lost the camera, but went on with her life and forgot about it.

“It was towards the end of the trip and all my pictures were on there. It was my first experience there, so I was pretty upset about it, but what are you going to do?” she said on the news program.

After the camera was found, the story was posted on the Web site of a Hawaiian TV station and one of Scallan’s former classmates saw it.

“I got this random message on Facebook from a guy I went to high school with, saying his wife found an article and he thought it was about me and my camera,” Scallan said. “It was social media at its best.”

It was confirmed earlier this week that the camera was indeed the one Scallan had lost. Since then, China Airlines has offered to pay the costs of returning the camera to Scallan — in fine style.

“China Airlines has offered to pay for me to go out there [to Taiwan] as well as my room, board, food and everything,” she said. “An all-expenses paid trip to come out there and get my camera back, and meet the guy who found it. It’s been a wild ride.”

The Taitung County Government has also pitched in by offering local hotel accommodation for Scallan.